The Block coach Shelley Craft has revealed why house five, which was renovated by the show’s winners Omar and Oz, had so many bids and disputed claims that the bidders were fake.
This year, Omar and Oz’s house received numerous bids at auction, while the other houses’ auctions were very quiet. Omar and Oz’s house was sold to The Block regular buyer Danny Wallis, and he battled two other fellow bidders who drew up the price.
One of those bidders was multi-millionaire Adrian Portelli, who left the auction immediately after he failed to win Omar and Oz’s house and didn’t stick around for the auctions on fellow contestant’s houses, which are very similar.
Furthermore, a history of friendship between Omar and Oz and Adrain was later uncovered, leaving many viewers questioning The Block pals had enlisted the help of their friend to drive up the price.
However, Shelley explained that although the same faces pop up at The Block auction year after year, like Danny Wallis, those people are necessarily bidding for the house themselves.
“As you can see that a lot of the potential buyers use buyer’s advocates because they don’t want to be on television,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
The long-term The Block coach also addressed the bidding battle that was seen for Omar and Oz’s house, but not for any other contestants.
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“We obviously had some frenzied bidders on House Five (Omar and Oz) this year. That’s what you need – you need at least two giants to go toe to toe to make a great auction.”
She added, “If you don’t have any other bidders in the room, well it’s a very slow room and it’s a very quiet room as we saw in the other houses.”
“That’s the beauty of The Block being a reality TV show… Once the train leaves the station, we really have to just sit back and watch like the rest of Australia, which is hard to do. Let me tell you,” she said.
Omar and Oz’s house won the show by a landslide – they walked away with $1,586,666.66 in profit, plus an extra $100,000 in prize money for winning. The next closest couple, Sharon and Ankur, made just $170,000 on their house, with Rachel and Ryan closely behind at $169,000. Meanwhile, Tom and Sarah-Jane made just $20,000 for their time on the show. Dylan and Jen haven’t received any bids over the reserve, so their house is still on the market.
For more on this topic, follow the Reality TV Observer.
